This invention relates to a computer component and, more specifically, to a housing for PCMCIA cards and the like.
PCMCIA is the term commonly used to refer to Personal Computer Memory Card International Association. PCMCIA is an organization consisting of some 500 companies that have developed a standard for small, credit card-sized devices, called PC Cards. Originally these PC cards were initially intended for use in adding memory to portable lap top computers; the PCMCIA standard has been expanded several times and is now suitable for many types of devices. There are in fact three types of PCMCIA cards. All three have the same rectangular size (85.6 by 54 millimeters), but different widths and outside terminal portions. As defined in Personal Computer Dictionary by Philip E. Margolis, Random House, Second Edition:
Type I cards can be up to 3.3 mm thick, and are used primarily for adding additional ROM or RAM to a computer.
Type II cards can be up to 5.5 mm thick. These cards are often used for modem and fax modem cards.
Type III cards can be up to 10.5 mm thick, which is sufficiently large for portable disk drives.
As with the cards, PCMCIA slots also come in three sizes;
A Type I slot can hold one Type I card
A Type II slot can hold one Type II card or one Type I card.
A Type III slot can hold one Type III card or a Type I and Type II card.
Ideally, you should be able to exchange PC Cards on the fly, without rebooting your computer. For example, you should be able to slip in a fax modem card when you want to send a fax and then, when you are done, replace the fax modem card with a memory card. Unfortunately, because of deficiencies in the initial standard and poor implementations by card manufacturers, this has sometimes not worked as planned. However, the standard appears to be reaching a level of maturity where such plug-and-play installation is becoming a reality.
Some analysts believe that the PC card has the potential to become the dominant expansion technology for desktop model computers as well as portable computers.
PCMCIA cards are primarily designed to be fitted into PCMCIA slots, however because of the potential for damage to the portion of the P.C. card that extends out of the slot (dongle), a complete PCMCIA housing has been proposed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/975,964. This housing with a door closing encloses a complete Type I or Type II or Type III card but cannot accommodate PC cards with large upwardly projecting end attachments.
In voice activated wearable computers, the PCMCIA door on the Mobile Assistant(copyright) (133P or MA IV) as discussed in U.S. Ser. No. 08/975,964 cannot accommodate all PCMCIA cards. This is because some PCMCIA card manufacturers have cumbersome attachments at the end of their cards. This is due, in part, because these manufacturers are driven by current standards of connectors and the need to conform to these standards. For example, Speech Solutions manufactures a Type II DSP-based speech recognition card that requires the user to attach a standard RCA-microphone jack to the card. Because there already exists microphones that have a certain type connector, Speech Solutions must be able to accommodate most of these connector types. This limits the minimum physical size the connector can be (in this case, it has to accommodate a xe2x85x9 inch RCA jack). Other manufactures also have little or no flexibility to the size the PCMCIA connector can be, they are either limited by physical size of the device they want to attach to the PCMCIA card or are limited by what size the connector can be and still provide the necessary functionality of the card. An example of this might be a PCMCIA card that provides a wireless connection for communicating with other computers. In this example there is a need to have an antenna attached to the PCMCIA card in order for the card to be able to communicate with other devices. The challenge is to provide the smallest antenna possible and still deliver acceptable results. It should be kept in mind that the smaller the antenna, the smaller the area that the antenna can cover. This a balancing act that the manufacturer of the device has to deal with. There is a need to minimize the size of the device as much as possible without limiting the functionality of the device itself.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a PCMCIA (PC) card housing devoid of the above noted disadvantages.
Another object of this invention is to provide a PCMCIA card housing having a movable door adapted to accommodate various size and shapes of PCMCIA cards.
A further object of this invention is to provide a PC card housing that will minimize damage to any portion of the card including the end extending dongle.
Still a further object of this invention is to provide a sliding or movable door which covers said housing wherein the movable door provides for card enclosure in the housing with a minimum exposure of card components.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a PC card housing and movable door that can accommodate Type I, Type II and Type III PCMCIA cards.
Another further object of this invention is to provide a PC card housing wherein a PC card can easily be inserted or removed from the computer.
Yet still another object of this invention is to provide A PCMCIA card housing where the card does not extend horizontally or longitudinally beyond the terminal portion of a computer where it could be damaged.
These and further objects of this invention are accomplished by a PCMCIA card housing that is large enough to accommodate all type of PCMCIA cards, with a flexible, slidable or movable door closure. This innovative door closure minimizes risk of damage to the dongle and other parts of the card. In prior art devices a substantial portion of the PCMCIA dongle is longitudinally exposed because it projects substantially out from the side portions of a computer. This is particularly undesirable in movable computers such as laptop or wearable computers of the prior art (see FIGS. 1 and 2 of this disclosure).
As provided by the present invention, a solution to this problem would be to allow the PCMCIA door to slide back, thus allowing the PCMCIA opening to accept nonstandard or large dongled cards. To prevent the PCMCIA opening from being exposed to the outside environments, the PCMCIA door can have attached to the door a rubber grommet that would provide protection to the inside of the PCMCIA compartment.
The slide back construction of the door of this invention is primarily designed for use with mobile computers but can be easily adapted for use with conventional computers or laptop computers. While the description of the door of this invention will be defined throughout this disclosure as used in a mobile computer, it should be understood that it can also be used in any type of computer that uses a PCMCIA card.